Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Once upon a time, there was a great nation. Unlike the other nations, their God was the God, the creator of all that was, is, and will be. God loved this nation so much, He chose to make His home in the midst of them.
This nation, which once was at the mercy of other great empires, grew to be a great power. Their king took a boon from God, becoming the wisest King in all the lands, and kings and queens came from far and wide to take council from him.
But as time passed on, the people began to think that it was all their own work that got them to where they were. They began to reject the Creator and His help. They strayed so far that empires once again surrounded their land, and soon they were shipped off and scattered to the ends of the earth.
In their exile, the people of the nation began to rediscover the Creator God, and they turned back to be in relationship with Him. Eventually, they were allowed to return home.
The nation decided that they would do whatever it took to never be taken from their home again. They would follow the One True God all their days. They too following the Law of The One very seriously.
This nation is, of course, Israel. And this leads us to our Gospel reading this morning.
The Gospel account focuses on the Pharisees, a sect of the Jewish people. The Pharisees focused on following the Law to the letter in order to never be exiled from their home again. One of the most important of these laws was the Sabbath day of rest.
The Pharisees, as we see, took this day very serious. You were not to do any work of any kind on this day.
Along comes Jesus, the Creator God in human form. Jesus too is concerned with making sure that Israel maintains her relationship with Him. But to do that, Jesus comes to teach not only what the law says, but to teach what it means.
The point of the Sabbath, as we learn in our reading from Deuteronomy this morning, is not simply to forego work. It is to remember what God has done. It is, in essence to be in relationship with the Creator God, the God of Israel.
That is why you were supposed to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as Jesus does in the Gospel. We forgo work on the Sabbath not for rest's sake, but to be in relationship with God.
This is why Jesus performs a healing on the Sabbath. It is a reminder of what it takes to be in relationship with God, which we say every Sunday in the Summary of the Law. We are not only to love God, but to love our neighbor as ourselves. Both of these parts of the law are needed to be in right relationship with God, which Jesus is showing by doing what He can to help His fellow man.
It wasn't keeping the word of the Law that was going to save Israel, but it was understanding the purpose of the Law. The purpose isn't to just follow it blindly, but to use it as a tool to help us be in closer relationship with God.
My hope is that you don't come here every Sunday, whether to St. Paul's or this website, out of a sense of duty. I hope that you do so because this is how we live in relationship with God. Our service is designed to do just that. We come in and hear what God has to say to us in His Word. We hear the words of this sermon, the fruits of my own conversations with God each week in trying to listen not just to the words of the Word, but to hear what God is still trying to say to us this day.
We then respond to God. We offer up our prayers and thanksgiving to God. We confess our sins to God and each other in order to be brought back in right relationship. And then we celebrate the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is the summation of how our worship is about relationship with God. In it we offer up to God gifts from His own creation. We offer up our prayers, in the words of the Eucharistic Prayer, of "praise and thanksgiving". God too acts in this part of the service. He comes down in the Holy Spirit to "bless and sanctify" the gifts we offer to be to us the body and blood Jesus offered up in The Last Supper, as well as on the Cross.
We each, both God and us, take up our parts, our roles, in our relationship through the act of Eucharist. Through the Eucharist, we are made one with Christ Jesus. We restore our relationship with Him.
Don't be like the leader of the Pharisees in the Gospel this morning. Come to church, but don't do so because you feel you have to fulfill some duty. Do so because you wish to be closer in relationship with God. That's what this service does; it brings us closer to God. What we have to do is come, listen, and let our worship bring us back to be in relationship with our Lord God, our master and our friend.